1 like = 1 visual novel question + more thoughts
· 15-minute read
i did a thread answering vn questions on bluesky so i thought i would share it here as well. it was nice thinking about stuff i don't usually & answering the questions actually gave me some insight on why i make vns the way i do myself 😆
at the same time though while i was writing it i kept thinking 'nooo i don't have enough space to say everything i want...' so i wrote this blog at the same time 🙈
(also i added a bluesky shortcode to the site for easy embedding so this is partly me testing to see how the shortcode works)
1 like = 1 visual novel question & answer! gonna answer some questions since i'm in still in a birthday mood ✨🎂
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T01:02:32.163Z
replies here!
1. favourite vn is ace attorney trilogy 1-3, yes it is a vn, no i am not taking any other opinions about this 😎
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T01:12:12.363Z
2. fave mc is very hard because i don't really think of characters divorced from their games but if i had to choose i'd say phoenix wright because he's the smartest & most earnest idiot (but i will try to make this a general vn reply thread & not just an aa reply thread i swear)
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T01:19:20.468Z
3. for genre, i love mystery vns!!! i feel like vns really shine with mysteries because you as the player get to choose where to go when and it really feels like you are watching the mystery unfold as you progress. also am generally a sucker for anything with a true route for the same reason haha.
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T01:23:07.668Z
4. kind of cheating for this answer but my favourite side charas in any game are probably the shop workers in love revo because they have way too much character for charas who only show up in shop dialogue!!! just look at their intro page www.gungho.jp/cgame/lovere...
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T01:31:58.120Z
5. fave chara route is shitara seiji from tmgs3 because i'm a SUCKER for charas that are standoffish at first but grow to like you slowly & are secretly dorks (also instruments 🎵❤️🔥) plus he has this great cg 🤣 (taking a break for now - will probably answer these in 5-question spurts hehe)
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T01:43:33.851Z
6. in general i like voice acting but i am fairly picky so if i don't like a voice for a character i will turn the voice acting for the whole game off 🙈 also vns that have auto text forward that goes to the next dialogue too soon/late after the voice line ends bug me A LOT it just sounds weird!!
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T06:45:38.317Z
7. choices or linear? i love them ALL! no choices? all choices? choices that don't progress the plot? timed choices? choices that only appear after you wait? overly convoluted choices? automatic game-over choices? choices hidden as gameplay? type-in-text anything-goes choices? ALL awesome!
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T06:48:44.466Z
8. generally i play in japanese or english and that covers most of the vns i want to play! i sometimes try to play in chinese but my chinese is not that good so it's a struggle 😭
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T06:50:22.350Z
9. one of my least favourite vn tropes is love triangles because if they have any chemistry at all i just want all three of them to date!!! (honestly in many cases i feel like the 'rivals' have better chemistry together than with the mc...)
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T07:33:29.294Z
10. i honestly can't really think of any earnestly made vn i played that i actually hated, but i am tired of vns that are made as a joke, like 'haha what if this REAL game was actually a vn'. visual novels aren't a punchline, but god forbid gamers™️ actually admit they like READING or ROMANCE (!) 🫨
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T07:40:32.044Z
11. i absolutely love minigames in my visual novels give me ALL THE MINIGAMES! but i also love visual novels that have no minigames whatsoever. whatever works for the game!
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T12:49:24.289Z
12. when possible i generally prefer physical over digital because i like owning games & being able to go back to them whenever, but digital is more convenient & a lot of the games i love are only available digital anyway so there's no choice.
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T12:50:42.043Z
13. up until recently i would have said 'absolutely console over pc when possible' but after getting a steam deck it's become a lot more convenient to play on pc (i have itch installed on it & can play vns i download through the itch launcher) so not much of ap reference now!
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T12:51:35.274Z
14. i generally prefer short vns over long vns (& by short i mean like... very short... i like it when i can finish a vn in one session of gameplay so tiny indie vns are perfect for me!)
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T12:52:11.112Z
15. i don't really have a preferred art style for vns but i like art that is unique! it's nice to be able to see art & immediately go 'oh that's ◯◯◯' going to mention love revo again because the chara designer yura has a very specific style & whenever i see yura's work i always go 'that's yura'
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-02T13:10:51.451Z
16. probably ace attorney! at the time i didn't even have the vocabulary to know what a game genre was (let alone visual novels specifically) but that sent me down a long road that has led me here... thank you ace attorney ⚖️
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T01:09:33.269Z
17. i like gen vns but i like romance vns too! i am an all-genre anything-goes vn enjoyer. actually just realised my previous reply is kind of wrong & my first game-with-vn-elements is bokumono mineral town... fell in love with popuri & thought 'man wish i could fall in love in EVERY game.'
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T01:21:15.934Z
18. i like both all ages & spicy! like i said, i'm an anything-goes vn enjoyer. it's weird when sex scenes are just shoehorned in though (especially if the writing style suddenly changes...) & i can appreciate a well-done 'fade to black' too.
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T01:24:40.890Z
19. i own so many vns... here's a quick photo of some of them! (i tried to choose games with different genres)
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T01:53:44.868Z
20. i own a lot of vn merch but a big part of it is just ace attorney stuff & that would need its own thread... so instead here's a recent post with a photo of merch from these games: 黒き竜と黄昏の書［Failed］- novelgame.jp/games/show/9... ▼スライム娘は人間と友達になりたいようだ+ - store.steampowered.com/app/3001340/
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T02:03:19.594Z
21. one vn pet peeve i have is when characterisation is different for the same character on different routes! i know that for larger games the writers for routes can be different people, but in that case i want the team to at least make sure the characterisation throughout routes matches...
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T05:13:22.400Z
22. i can't remember the names now but i've dropped a few mobile vns because i just couldn't keep up with the system. i find ftp vns very frustrating most of the time because i have to play at the pace that the monetisation dictates instead of on my own schedule & this ruins the experience for me.
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T05:15:10.385Z
23. not underrated per se but i wish Buddy Mission BOND was in english so more people could play! it's made by nintendo/koei tecmo (ruby party) with chara design by murata yusuke & is what you'd get if you distilled a shonen manga into a vn. also good study for vn devs - the design is 💯
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T05:31:13.807Z
24. don't have an all-time least favourite vn character, but currently i am annoyed at ernest amano after replaying aai because a) lauren paups deserves better & b) honestly his case doesn't even need to exist. aai for some reason takes like 3 cases to establish setting.
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-03T13:31:28.742Z
25. takumi shu is my favourite game writer (even with the clown!! i love moe 🤡) so much of how i write vns is learnt from his writing 🙏 (which is why my 地の文 are how they are...) if you haven't played ace attorney 123 (ok & 4) & gaa12 they're on sale on steam as of this post & go on sale often!!
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T01:03:42.334Z
26. ok i cry ALL THE TIME playing vns i have even cried playtesting my own vns (me: ugh i made a *sniffle* stupid typo here *sniffle* i should fix it) the one that makes me cry the most during playtesting 👉 store.steampowered.com/app/1688580/...
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T01:07:09.014Z
27. not one vn specifically but i've been meaning to play through this year's spooktober entries because so many of them look really good...! maybe i'll have myself a spooky christmas this year 🎄🎃 itch.io/jam/spooktob...
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T03:34:32.632Z
28. i like all the options listed - adv & nvl & speech bubbles! (like i said, i am an anything-goes vn enjoyer...) i do wish more games used more! switching up how dialogue is displayed is a great way to change a scene's vibe. also adv box position! doesn't have to be the bottom of the screen!!
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T06:12:34.375Z
29. fave quote: "Thanks to you, I am saddled with unnecessary... feelings." i have seen this quote so many times - different platforms, languages, media, fanworks - & it still gets me... helen might have the face that launched a thousand ships, but this quote launched one ship a thousand times.
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T07:38:55.016Z
30. i don't really know how exactly i got into vns. somebody recommended ace attorney to me & that's history now, but i'm not sure what got me into more 'vn' vns first... i'm pretty sure one of the first ones i played was love revo though & the stat raising hooked me in... i love stats!!!
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T08:58:55.122Z
31. don't have a preferred pov - so here are some random recs! 3P: Tidal Therapy ( store.steampowered.com/app/2635530/... ) 2P: Stay? ( ejadelomax.itch.io/stay ) ok this is interactive fiction but i really love it & i just want to share 1P: DON'T SAY YES ( realkeythefox.itch.io/dont-say-yes )
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T10:57:39.629Z
32. finally i'm gonna be super corny & recommend not a vn but a vn engine! ren'py is free & open source & easy to use - it's what i use to make most of my vns. renpy.org download it now & the next visual novel somebody recs in a thread like this could be yours!! let's make vns together!!! 💪
— kc 🐰 Marron's Day out on Switch! (@npckc.net) 2024-12-04T11:04:14.053Z
i enjoy doing little reply posts like these because it often helps me think about stuff i hadn't actually thought about, like me wondering why ftp mobile visual novels didn't hit with me back when i played them way back when (but also thinking stuff has become much better writing-wise in that world now) had me looking some stuff up, & that's how i found out that there was a general rule accepted by many mobile (keitai) games developed in japan that scenarios had to be finished within 10-20 clicks/taps (dialogues) which carried over to smartphones. this whole article is really interesting (though in japanese) so i recommend reading it if you can, but it also talks about how fgo always has wyverns interrupting conversations - and this 20-tap rule is part of the reason for it! but as fgo went on further, they figured out that it was ok to focus more on the story (& that users wanted this) so they have scenarios that require even 100 taps... & this also spread to other smartphone games when the devs there saw that people were accepting more taps on smartphone than they did on older mobile games.
i think this highlights a difference in player behaviour across platforms - people on phones aren't usually going to tap 100x to get through one scenario at once. they're playing in their spare time maybe while standing on a train. & this expectation of player behaviour can bleed out into the narrative design, resulting in frequent interruptions in a story that might seem unnatural (why so many wyverns?) but are deemed necessary to keep people playing.
sort of like how shows broadcasting on tv will have to have their story fit the exact amount of time that they have for broadcasting one episode, smartphone game stories were written (& often still are written) to cut off every 20 taps, but this means that stories have to be written around this limit (& some stories probably can't be written well this way).
it might be hard to imagine it without actually writing it out, but 20 taps is quite short! seriously, try writing a story in 20 dialogue windows right now & see how little space you get to play around. with so many limitations, it's easy to fall back on shortcuts, like more stereotypical characters (less need to explain a character to the player), generic 'european' fantasy setting (player will immediately understand where the game is taking place), common tropes (saves space when the player already knows the framework for a scenario)... it often requires players to have a common background knowledge (& requires the writer to work within this knowledge as well) which can alienate people unfamiliar with the genre while also end up treading too much of the same territory to feel 'same-y'.
similarly, gacha character side stories can be unlocked whenever & are usually read as standalones, & not everyone will get to see them, so often these stories can't do anything that would actually drastically change the overall arching story, which makes them generally superfluous in terms of the story (but not in terms of money-making... so they continue to exist.)
it's cool to see how the relationship between player behaviour (& gacha revenue) can influence game design. i love seeing how writing changes under different limitations! but at the same time it does make me think about what kinds of stories the writers for these games could have told under different circumstances. i usually play visual novels on pc & console, & even indie ones made by hobby devs will go much longer than 20 taps per scenario in many cases.
while i think it's fun to create things under limitations, i also think things can get a bit samey if everyone is always working under the same limitations... in this case it was a specific one imposed by companies wanting their games on mobile to have better player retention (& thus make more money) but these effects can also spread out to other devs who will play these games, see others play these games, & grow used to this specific style of writing.
especially if you are outside of the industry you might not even know such a rule ever existed - i didn't! - but i still felt the impacts of it when i played mobile games back then & they didn't click with me as well as ones do now. none of us creates in a bubble, so it's just interesting to me to see how these trends bubble up (& break down) with time. this limitation was brought about because of mobile phones, but similar rules probably already exist, even if only subconsciously, for games meant more for streaming (as in played by streamers as well as for streaming services).
in any case, however the trends flow, i'll probably still be making visual novels & interactive fiction. in case you missed it, i just released a game called Marron's Day last week which is a cute story about a bunny saving the town festival! check it out 🐰 i made it in gameboy because like i wrote above - i think it's fun creating under limitations!